“We’ll encourage local authorities to take back control of their buses so they can provide a better and more sustainable service to young and old alike, wherever they live,” he will say.

Bus fares in England have risen by an average of 2.9% each year between 2012 and 2017 – which is higher than the typical rate of inflation (2.3%), Department for Transport figures show.

The annual number of passenger journeys fell by 1.5%, or 70 million, in the year ending March 2017 compared with the previous 12 months.

Conservative transport minister Nusrat Ghani said: “Last election Labour promised to pay off student debt if elected and then admitted it would actually cost too much to do. Now they’re bribing young people again with yet another empty promise.”

The government is trialling railcards for 26-to-30-year-olds “to help with the cost of travel” but faced some criticism when only 10,000 were released on the launch date last month, equating to just one for every 500 of the eligible population.